The reason Billy Joel doesn’t sell front row seats to his shows

Billy Joel doesn't want 'gold chainers' to get a hold of his front-row tickets

Over the past decade the 'Piano Man' has played over a hundred shows and has sold millions of tickets, of which not one is situated front-row.

In an interview with Billboard back in 2014, Joel explained his decision to refuse to sell front-row tickets.

“We never sell front rows, we hold those tickets at just about every concert. For years, the scalpers got the tickets and would scalp the front row for ridiculous amounts of money,” he said.

“I’d look down and see rich people sitting there, I call ’em ‘gold chainers.’ Sitting there puffing on a cigar, ‘entertain me, piano man.’ They don’t stand up, make noise, sit there with their bouffant-haired girlfriend lookin’ like a big shot,” he continued.

“I kinda got sick of that, who the hell are these people, where are the real fans? It turns out the real fans were always in the back of the room in the worst seats.”

Billy's team then decided to select fans from the back of the arena and offer them the front-row seats as they were the ones “really happy to be there.”

“We now hold those tickets, and I send my road crew out to the back of the room when the audience comes in and they get people from the worst seats and bring ’em into the front rows,” he explained.

“This way you’ve got people in the front row that are really happy to be there, real fans. We’ve tried to figure out how to beat the scalpers for years and years, hold off selling until the last minute, the wristband thing, limiting the amount of tickets people can get.”

Even though this causes Joel and his team to lose out on thousands of dollars every night, the 'New York State of Mind' singer loves seeing his real fans engage with his performances.

“They make the best audience, they make the most noise, they’re the most enthusiastic. It’s just hard to get to them any more. I tell the audience every night, ‘I hope you didn’t pay more than face value on that ticket, because we ain’t worth more than that, and you ain’t gonna get any more than that,’” Joel said at the time.